Signs of Jesus’ (pbuh) Second Coming

The Signs from the Islamic Resources 7

74. Good Is Confused with Evil

“What will become of you when you do not enjoin the right and forbid the wrong?” he asked. [Those around him asked in amazement:] “Will that truly happen?” “Yes, and even worse!” he replied, and went on to ask: “What will become of you when you enjoin the wrong and forbid the good?” Those around him were astonished: “O Prophet! Will that also happen?” “Yes, and even worse!” he replied, and continued: “What will become of you when you regard good as evil and evil as good?” The people around him asked: “O Prophet! Will that also come to pass?” “Yes, it will,” he replied. (Ibn Abi Ya'la, Musnad; al-Tabarani, al-Awsat)

The hadith states that good is totally confused with evil in societies that are far removed from religious values. People are regarded as naïve for doing what is right and exhibiting proper moral values, and those who trample on others' rights in their own interests are regarded as clever and competent. This situation, which is completely opposed to the Qur’an’s moral values, has become a fixed concept in many present-day societies.

75. Close People Will Encourage One Another to Evil

The destruction of a person will be in the hands of his parent; if not, of his wife; and again if not, in his relative. They will blame him for his failure to earn his living, cause him to drift into deeds of which he is incapable, and ultimately make him get involved in dark and dangerous deeds, at the cost of his destruction. (Abu Naim)

76. The Number of True Believers Being Very Few

The Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace) says that in the End Times, very few people will be true believers:

There will come a time for my people when … the mosques will be full of people, but they will be empty of right guidance. (al-Hakim)

77. Use of Mosques for Different Purposes

The hadith quoted below reveals that one sign of the End Times is that mosques will be used only as social gathering places:

The Hour will not come until mosques cease to be places where people pray, but become places where people stop by. (Son Zamanla İlgili Hadisler [Hadiths Related to the End Times], p. 87)

The Last Hour will not come until people vie with one another about mosques. (Sunan Abu Dawud, Ibn Hibban, and Ibn Majah)

78. Appearance of People Who Recite the Qur'an for Personal Benefit

In the End Times, some people will recite the Qur'an for profit rather than for gaining God's approval:

Let him who reads the Qur'an ask [his reward] from God, because in the End Times many people will read it and seek their reward from other people. (Tirmidhi)

When our scholars study in order to take your gold and silver, and when you take the Qur'an for trade, then Doomsday is at hand. (Muhammad ibn 'Abd ar-Rasul Barzanji, Al-Isha`ah li Ashrat as-Sa`ah, p. 141)

Another sign is that the Qur'an will be recited in ways far removed from its real purpose:

When the Qur'an is recited as if singing a song, and when a person is esteemed for reading in that way, even though he is not knowledgeable … (Al-Tabarani)

79. Faith in Horoscopes and Refutation of Fate

Some Muslims will have a wrong understanding of fate, while some will believe that the stars can grant knowledge of the future. This is another indication of the End Times:

The Hour will come when people will believe in the stars and reject Qadar [the Divine Decree of destiny]. (Al-Haythami, Kitab al-Fitan)

80. Making Hajj (the Pilgrimage to Makkah) for Purposes Other Than God's Good Pleasure

Making Hajj for commerce, travel, ostentation, or for a change is another portent of the End Times:

A time will come when the wealthy perform Hajj for travel, the average man for commerce, their scholars for ostentation and hypocrisy, and the poor for begging for alms. (Ahmad Diya'al-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, p. 503, no. 8)

81. People Inclining to the Desires of their Lower Selves

A time will come when people's concerns will be making a living, their honor will be their possessions, and their qiblah [the direction Muslims face during formal worship] will be their women. Their religion will be gold and silver. These are the people's evils, and they will have nothing in God's sight. (al-Sulami)

82. Social Deterioration

A serious problem today is the disintegration of many societies' social fabric. This collapse is discernable in such phenomena as broken families, increased divorce and illegitimate birth rates, which naturally injure and even destroy the institution of the family. Stress, anxiety, unhappiness, worry, and chaos turn the lives of many people into nightmares. People living in a spiritual void, looking for a way out of their depression, fall into a bleak mire of alcohol or drugs. Some who think that there is no solution even consider suicide as a way out.

One striking mark of social decline is the huge increase in crime, which has now reached substantial proportions. The report "Universal Crime and Justice" prepared by the United Nations' International Crime Prevention Center, contains a general appraisal of crime throughout the world:

Basically, as in the 1980s, the crime rate continued to rise in the 1990s. Everywhere in the world, in a five-year period, two-thirds of the people living in large cities have been the target at least once of a criminal action. All over the world, the odds of being the target of a serious crime (robbery, sexual crimes, assault) are one in five. Regardless of the area, crimes against property, and crimes of violence committed by youth, have both had economic ramifications. The number of types of illicit drugs has increased and their nature has diversified in recent years.53

Actually, this is not surprising, for the causes of such a societal phenomenon are clearly related in the Qur'an’s accounts of past societies. Social deterioration and its related problems are the inevitable results of human beings' forgetting God, why they were created, and their abandoning of religion and its spiritual values.

Such social deterioration was predicted by the Prophet (may God bless him and grant him peace), who described the End Times as "When people suffer strife and social upheaval." (Ahmad Diya'al-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz al-Ahadith, vol. 7, p. 7)

83. Adherence to Traitors, and Considering the Righteous as Treacherous

Soon years containing treacheries and tricks will come. A liar will be declared true in them and a true man will be declared a liar; a treacherous will be designated as trustworthy and a trustworthy as a treacherous. (Ibn Majah)

The time will be years of confusion. People will believe a liar and not believe one who tells the truth. (Ibn Ahmad Hanbal)

The Day of Judgment will not come until the very lowest people are the happiest. (Tirmidhi)

The acceptance of lies and rejection of the truth are among the portents of Doomsday. (al-Tabarani)

The liar will be received well, and the one who tells the truth will be rejected. People will trust traitors, and the ones who are trustworthy will be treated as traitors... Then lies will spread... (Fera Idu Fevaidi'l Fiqr Fi'l Imam al-Mahdi al-Muntadhar, pp. 146-47)

Tricky years lie before the Hour. At those times, trustworthy people are accused and traitors are believed. The trustworthy one is silenced, and the liar is seen as reliable. (Ibn Asakir)

It is a sign of the Hour when one who is not fit possesses a lot and is brought to a good status, while one who is capable is ousted. (Nu`aym ibn Hammad, Kitab al-Fitan)

Therefore, the increase in the amount of evil people, as well as the facts that trustworthy people are considered liars and that some presumed liars are actually trustworthy are all characteristics of the End Times.

NOTES

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